FFwD: Leek and Potato Soup~

19122010

It’s been busy. It’s been chilly and rainy. There’s nothing that works better on busy, rainy, chilly nights than a bowl of spirit and soul warming soup that tastes heavenly. This is it. So my choice this week is Dorie’s Leek and Potato soup from her book Around My French Table. Get the book. There are too many recipes that make the book worth it to count. Tell Santa how incredibly good you really have been. Beg. Buy it yourself for yourself. But if you don’t have it, get it. It makes “French Cooking” elementary.

Back to the soup… Dorie is so easy… Creamy, chunky, this is your soup. Hot or cold, this is your soup. In other words, purée it for a smooth consistency, chill it to make vichyssoise, leave it chunky and peasant style…whatever suits your fancy…she’s that flexible with the outcome…just follow the extremely simple (and lower calorie) instructions than the usual French recipe and you’ve got it made.

Tasting Notes~
We enjoyed this with some hot bread and a salad. Having made the LCB version of the same soup, this is a little less rich, a little less work, and a lot more home kitchen friendly without a great deal of loss of flavor. Especially if you’ve gotten into the habit of making a little bouquet garni (a sprig of thyme, some celery tops, a bay leaf and a bit of fresh parsley wrapped in leek greens and tied into a package) to toss into little pots of broth… Once you’ve learned how effective such little things are at generating huge flavors, you can apply them to a lot of recipes for great results. I’ve started adding little bg’s to just about any generic broth I’ll be adding to something. It really makes a difference in the flavors in the end.

I can’t comment enough on how versatile this recipe is. With a tiny tweak of using clam juice and water and evaporated milk instead of water and milk, and adding lots of (sad to say, fresh weren’t available-rarely are!) canned, chopped clams, some diced celery and diced Yukon Gold potatoes, we had a really yummy clam chowder! Ok, perhaps not strictly Boston nor “Pacific”…but it was thick and rich without any added roux, had a lovely underlying base flavor and was full of clams with the occasional potato or celery in a bite. There was enough “clam” flavor in the soup to acknowledge it, without it being overwhelmingly “fishy.” We’ll chat about that when I post about the clam chowder though!

Seriously…this soup is a keeper. I can make this recipe without thinking now. It’s that easy, and that good.